scotrail158713
Established Member
Have you discovered how to work time travel?So as of Friday 15th June 2019,
Have you discovered how to work time travel?So as of Friday 15th June 2019,
Yes I have a Tardis.Have you discovered how to work time travel?
I'm afraid it's not a pretty sight. Only five refurbs have been done out of 26 and probably only 3 are in passenger service at one time. As far as is known not a lot-maybe 8 coaches or so have gone to Kilmarnock and don't expect them out anytime soon. I cannot see any more than 10 refurbs been completed by end of this year and I wouldn't even want to guess how long it will take to do all 26.... The "Classic HSTs" are still in use but there is not a lot used in daily service with frequent cancellations and substitutions by other trains. There is supposed to be about 15 diagrammed (refurbs and "Classics") daily at the minute but think this rarely the case. If you look at various post on this thread you'll understand what a mess it all is!!So as of Friday 15th June 2019, where exactly are we with 7 Cites HST sets?
How many full refurbished sets are working passenger services not just for training?
How is Kilmarnock getting on with refurbishment? Have any Mk3 vehicles emerged from there yet and is it going any better than at Doncaster.
I might have missed some of this info in previous posts but all lost in the other stuff.
I'm afraid it's not a pretty sight. Only five refurbs have been done out of 26 and probably only 3 are in passenger service at one time. As far as is known not a lot-maybe 8 coaches or so have gone to Kilmarnock and don't expect them out anytime soon. I cannot see any more than 10 refurbs been completed by end of this year and I wouldn't even want to guess how long it will take to do all 26.... The "Classic HSTs" are still in use but there is not a lot used in daily service with frequent cancellations and substitutions by other trains. There is supposed to be about 15 diagrammed (refurbs and "Classics") daily at the minute but think this rarely the case. If you look at various post on this thread you'll understand what a mess it all is!!
Cheery as this assessment is, it would be nice to know if you have even the loosest reasons to believe that beyond this thread? By suggesting 10 units by the end of the year you are basically suggesting that the work rate at Doncaster will slow down, and nothing will come out of Kilmarnock at all, which seems beyond improbable however naturally cynical you areI'm afraid it's not a pretty sight. Only five refurbs have been done out of 26 and probably only 3 are in passenger service at one time. As far as is known not a lot-maybe 8 coaches or so have gone to Kilmarnock and don't expect them out anytime soon. I cannot see any more than 10 refurbs been completed by end of this year and I wouldn't even want to guess how long it will take to do all 26.... The "Classic HSTs" are still in use but there is not a lot used in daily service with frequent cancellations and substitutions by other trains. There is supposed to be about 15 diagrammed (refurbs and "Classics") daily at the minute but think this rarely the case. If you look at various post on this thread you'll understand what a mess it all is!!
The picture you paint in this post is not what I see every day.I don't think he is suggesting that. Five (or is it six?), sets have been delivered by half way through the six month of the year and are in very limited service. I dropped off my partner today to get the train south. It was a 170, no reservations and a bit dirty. If you had to put money on a service, bet on it being a 170 as the HSTs are few and far between and not that reliable.
The picture you paint in this post is not what I see every day.
Conversion training to refurb sets is still ongoing for staff already trained on the classic sets. However staff that have yet to receive any HST training at all won't do so until after summer.Also with 5 refurb sets dotted about training can be executed at all relevant depots when it restarts.
The attitude you display is exactly the problem. It is not good enough to herd passengers on a much smaller train like cattle. If the train broke down fine as you say that happens. If another train could not be found to assist the passengers in getting up to Inverness then replacement buses should have been organised. It is not as if it is the first time that replacement buses have been needed.
Doing nothing is simply not acceptable. it shows the low regard passengers are held. I arrived in Perth form Glasgow one winters day to an announcement this train is terminating here please take your stuff and bugger off. Not good enough no one to answer any questions just a shambles.
This is symptomatic of a rail way that has lost the focus on the importance of fare paying passengers.
A thought on the reliability fixes, they obviously should have been done from the outset but I wonder if this could be the 'compensation' for the very late delivery? As I don't think there was mention of anything of that ilk happening till the project was seriously overrunning.
That makes me think Wabtec may have said we will pay for the reliability mods as recompense, or the compensation given pays the cost of the work. It is good that they are doing it but I would have thought it better to have been included from outset, bean counters involved I suppose.
Suggest you have a read of my previous posts on here about poor customer service on the railway before you start about attitude.
I’d also love to know where you find a load of buses/coaches at 7pm on a Sunday night in Perth.
Given that the Chieftain shows as “cancelled due to a problem with the traction equipment” at Perth - so a failure rather than planned - what’s your solution for that? I really don’t see how that is disdain towards passengers - it’s one of those things that happens sometimes.
Wabtec are only refurbishing the trailers, I believe - Brush are refurbishing the Power Cars (at Loughborough, I think)
Looking at this from a far west perspective, the introduction of HST GTI's on GWR services with a mix of classic 4car HST sets, seems to have been achieved with minimal fuss or disruption.
It would seem that lack of experience at all operational levels could be the main issue rather than the sets themselves.
So all things being equal as expertise evolves - problems should ease & the Scotrail should achieve the same reliability as GWR ??
From personal experience just now I'd say around a quarter of HML services are running as classic HSTs, but I only see what I see, I don't claim any statistical validity.What do you see every day? On average, every day, what percentage of the classic and refurbished fleet is in use?
What's the unit to HST split on the HML every day?
From personal experience just now I'd say around a quarter of HML services are running as classic HSTs, but I only see what I see, I don't claim any statistical validity.
I've mentioned tables before, so apologies for banging on about it, but the last two times I've got on Scotrail HSTs I've ended up upgrading to First Class because the situation with tables in Standard has been so bad. I'd sooner pay an extra £15 than traipse up and down a crowded train looking for somewhere to get my laptop out. This is very much my personal thing, but the layout and ambience of these awful GWR Standard coaches is so bad that I'd sooner a 170 turns up.
Like everyone else, I'm totally fed up with this shambles.
A quarter??? Jesus don't know what you see but there is only 4 services a day Monday to Friday which are meant to be classic HST
0845 inverness to queen Street
0707 queen Street to Inverness
1508 queen Street to Inverness
1854 Inverness to Edinburgh
That's a woeful amount....... Would hate to work the percentage out
A seagull somehow got on refurbished set HA26 at Aberdeen today and travelled to Montrose. He enjoyed it so much he left many tokens of his appreciation in the coach...
Can you explain a bit more what 'marginal working' means?This isn't really relevant to this thread, but I'd think that terminating at Edinburgh would have been a better option, organising buses from there. The trouble with 'marginal working' (i.e., using layover time to extend workings) is there is very little redundancy if things go wrong. Even a power car swap at Waverley might have been an idea (although, I realise that's not that practical, as it would have caused a horrendous delay). Eaiser to find replacement transport too. I'd assume LNER have contingency plans in place for such occurrances?
If the set had been terminated at Waverley, it could have been moved to Craigentinny for attention. What happened to the set after it arrived at Perth? ECS to Craigentinny? Or did it run to Inverness, in the hope of fixing the fault for the next day? I have heard of LNER fitters travelling up to fix faults before...
I'll go with 19%, which is woeful I agree, and I should've said that I'm including ones that I see going by as well as those I travel on.19% for those interested so not far off a quarter granted but still should be more
It’s often known as ‘marginal time’. Essentially it is the use of time in diagrams at the beginning and/or end of the day that would otherwise be unused to extend services beyond their normal point. The Chieftain is a classic case: when it was first introduced it used a set that would otherwise finish at Edinburgh at around 1630 to extend to Inverness. Likewise the southbound makes productive use of a set that would otherwise be sat at Craigentinny until 1100ish.Can you explain a bit more what 'marginal working' means?
At least partly? Surely wholly to blame?
They might have said that, but I don't think they will have. They must be sick of this by now given the continual negative press they are getting, which is well deserved in my opinion.
My heavily pregnant partner will be coming home to Inverness tomorrow. Will it be a packed 170 or an HST? No one knows until you turn up at the platform...
I noticed down the back of the Inverness maintenance depot there's a full refurb set but it also looks like there's three unrefurbished coaches on their own with no power cars, anyone know what's up with them?
I was going to say I've barely seen any HST's in the station at Inverness but of course after thinking that there was one there today.